Kukla's Korner Hockey

Category: CBC-HNIC

Soon, as negotiations to renew Hockey Night In Canada’s contract with the National Hockey League commence, a determination on the future of Cherry and the ever-popular Coach’s Corner segment will have to be made.

It may, in fact, be forced.

When Burke went behind Cherry’s back and made it clear to his NHL brethren that he no longer wanted Cherry on the large Hockey Night stage he found he had surprising support for the concept. He wasn’t alone in wanting the outspoken Cherry silenced. There is a sense within the NHL that Hockey Night, and in particular host Ron MacLean and Cherry, are too combative, too critical, too agenda driven for the NHL’s liking.

If this is the league’s signature program, they, like some of their friends at CBC, would prefer it to be more vanilla. Less spice.

So here’s the CBC dilemma: Cherry remains its ratings grabber. Large as the game may be, he still commands attention far beyond the game itself and long after Saturday night is over. It’s six days after game night and his anti-Burke rant is still a trending topic of conversation.

Saturday night’s broadcast of the Original Six match-up between the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Montreal Canadiens at 7 p.m. ET on CBC’S HOCKEY NIGHT IN CANADA drew the largest audience of the season with an average of 2.51 million viewers. The March 3 audience represents the largest number of viewers for a regular season game on CBC’S HOCKEY NIGHT IN CANADA since November 20, 2010 when another Leafs/Canadiens matchup reached 2.54 million.

Ratings data from the Bureau of Broadcast Measurement (BBM) show the game reached nearly 7.4 million viewers, or one in five Canadians. Audience numbers peaked at 9:34 pm ET with an audience of 3.37 million.

Despite hating each other, Cherry and Burke have had this much in common — there is only one gear in their engine, the one that goes forward.

For the first time, Burke has started backing up.

It’s unclear how two men of such similar outlook on the game came to dislike each other so much. Burke is the sort who needs to dominate every conversation he’s in. He needs his intelligence acknowledged.

Cherry is the sort who just talks until everyone else gives up. He doesn’t care if you’re agreeing, as long as you’re listening. Maybe that’s it.

Cherry picks his fights lightly, and has traditionally let go of them easily. Everyone is just a little bit below his notice, so he can’t be bothered to accrue a long enemies’ list.